My Funny Valentine
by ondine
Summary: Another Cloud/Tifa pairing. It's not really up front but they are basically the main characters in this short lil' story.


AN: I do not own anything. Well, maybe except my goldfish. Ok, I didn't know what to write. Just wrote off the top of my head while listening to Ella Fitzgerald's rendition of My Funny Valentine. Well, read and review puh-leez. Thanks!  
  
My Funny Valentine  
  
**_My funny valentine_**   
  
With a heavy sigh Tifa walked to the bridge of the Highwind.   
  
Tifa Lockheart had tried. She tried as hard as she possibly could. Being the shy type, she just couldn't summon up the courage to confront the blond youth with her feelings.   
  
_No! I am NOT going to make a fool out of myself! If he has any interest in me whatsoever, he'll show it._  
  
The metal doors of the bridge opened automatically, revealing a blond lean man. Tifa spotted Cloud on the bridge of the Highwind and immediately turned tail in the opposite direction.  
  
Unfortunately, Cloud's enhanced senses have already been alerted of her presence.  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
Tifa stopped dead in her tracks as she frantically tried to think of some plausible excuse.   
"Umm..." she mumbled with her back towards him. "I was looking for Yuffie, have you seen her?"  
  
"Funny, did you forget? We dropped her off at Wutai already?"  
  
Tifa whirled around mentally kicking herself. She had already forgotten. "Ha, of course!   
Guess I...forgot."  
  
The warrior gave a slight upward turn of his lips.   
  
**_Sweet comic valentine_**  
  
Tifa studied the object of her affections. He was as she left him a few hours ago- leaning on the railing and looking out over the horizon. The man was in deep thought, his cerulean blue eyes mirrored the deep blue that was below the Highwind as it passed over the seas.  
  
"You're staring Teef."  
  
His voice made her jump. Tifa's cheeks immediately turned a slight shade of pink. "Oh...I'm just wondering what you're thinking because you've been in the same position a few hours ago."  
  
"Hnh."  
  
_Just like her to notice_, the blond youth thought. It brought a certain pang of warmth in his heart.  
  
**_You make me smile...with my heart_**  
  
He turned his head slightly to look back at her and saw her take a step back upon doing so. Had he scared her?  
  
He took in a full view of her form and it somehow made him less tense.  
  
**_Your looks are laughable_**  
  
"Now I think you're the one that's staring," Tifa grinned letting loose some of her tension.   
  
"So what if I am?" he countered as he looked directly in her eyes with an intensity that made her stop smiling.  
  
She began feeling self-conscious.  
  
He was amazed at the many different expressions that could be housed in just one face. One beautiful face...  
  
**_Un-photographable..._**  
  
The silence between them was unbearable. Tifa looked side to side as if searching for an escape route. She didn't want to subject herself to any more ridicule- if that's what he was doing. There was no telling with him.  
  
"Umm...I think I'd better get going, I have to-" Tifa started as she turned around and started walking out of the bridge.  
  
His voice stopped her once more.  
  
"No, please wait."  
  
Tifa looked at the man closely. His voice had somehow betrayed his lack of emotion. It had that sense of urgency- but where was the urgency on his face?  
  
He had wanted to see her again before she took off.  
  
**_Yet, you're my favorite work of art  
_**  
He took the opportunity to admire her once more. He had seen her become into a fully matured woman, and it had awed him. He remembered as a youth how he would just spend his days watching her bask in life. He remembered watching her under the mask of a soldier when he went to Nibelheim. All of those times were so different from the chance that he got now.  
  
No masks. No hiding in his house and looking out the window. No more false pretenses to hold up.  
  
He was here and she was there- and no one would object to it.  
  
**_Is your figure less than Greek?  
Is your mouth a little weak?  
When you open it to speak  
Are you smart?  
_**  
Time seemed to pass them both incoherently as he watched her as she stood there, free for him to admire as if some artwork on display at a museum. She was his Venus de Milo.   
  
"Cloud please," Tifa pleaded with him, "what is it?"  
  
"Nothing. Come over here," he commanded with a voice that was deceptively soft.  
  
Tifa slowly walked towards the railing where he was situated. Her thoughts were reeling as to what he was planning on doing. This wasn't like him.   
  
When she finally reached the railing, she took it upon herself to distance herself a couple of feet away from him. Tifa still felt his eyes on her, so she consciously focused out onto the horizon. "I'm here now," Tifa said softly, "What is it?"  
  
**_But don't change a hair for me  
Not if you care for me  
_**  
Her proximity made his heart beat slightly faster. The scent of her hair wafted through the air and surrounded him like an aura of spring rains. Just her presence made him well up with pride. She had never changed. She was a classic. Her face looked determined and so set on the horizon that he couldn't help but laugh in his heart knowing that he had made her feel a bit uncomfortable. He hoped that she didn't know that she had the same effect on him.  
  
Tifa pushed herself off of the railing after hearing no answer from her companion. Just what was wrong with him today?   
  
Cloud's mind was broken out of its reverie as he saw her leave the railing. He caught her wrist before she had a chance to get any further.  
  
**_Stay little valentine...  
_**  
"Teef."  
  
**_Stay...  
_**  
She looked at him with surprise and a bit of annoyance. He had never been this assertive with her before.   
  
Cloud gently took her wrist and upturned her hand. He fished something out of his pocket and gently laid a small red silk satchel on her hand.   
  
"What?" Tifa looked incredulously at the object in her hand and then at the man who had given it to her.  
  
"I picked it up when we stopped over at Wutai to drop Yuffie off."  
  
All she could do was just look at the beautiful red silk satchel.  
  
"Open it when you're in your room tonight."  
  
"Th-thanks," Tifa managed to say. I know today isn't my birthday, so why did he give this to me?  
  
Almost as if he had read her thoughts, Cloud Strife smiled at her and said, "Happy Valentine's day."  
  
"But Cloud, it isn't even Valentine's..."  
  
"I know."  
  
Tifa smiled at him, and he just watched his funny valentine.  
  
**_Each day is Valentine's day._**  
  
  
  



End file.
